


With Great Power

by beware_the_lafayeti



Category: Hamilton - Miranda
Genre: Abandoned Work - Unfinished and Discontinued, Alternate Universe - Magic, F/M, M/M, alex's entire life but with magic, and by the time i could bring myself to write anything, executive dysfunction is a bitch, i just... wasnt into hamilton anymore :/, magic!alex, thats it thats the whole thing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-13
Updated: 2016-07-22
Packaged: 2018-06-08 02:45:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,917
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6835846
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/beware_the_lafayeti/pseuds/beware_the_lafayeti
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“No, honey.” Rachel interjected firmly. “There are just some things that I need to explain to you.” She placed her hands tenderly on Alexander’s shoulders and kneeled, shrinking their height gap until her gaze was level with his. “Things that I should have told you much sooner.”</p><p>(a Harry Potter-esque Magic!Ham AU)</p><p>EDIT: I'm not really into Hamilton anymore. I've just.... lost interest and lack the passion required to continue this. If anyone wants to continue this fic or use the AU to write a fic of their own, go ahead! All I ask is that this work is credited somewhere.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [It's Only a Matter of Time](https://archiveofourown.org/works/5488871) by [MissWoodhouse](https://archiveofourown.org/users/MissWoodhouse/pseuds/MissWoodhouse). 



> I don't normally write fics on here, and this is the first one I've uploaded so this is gonna be a roller coaster for all of us.
> 
> The magic part is the same magic from the Harry Potter universe, but there's no Hogwarts or any HP characters or anything like that so you don't really need to have read the books. It certainly wouldn't hurt, though, especially as the story goes on.
> 
> Shoutout to Jade, Emma, and Rae for helping me get this idea out of my head.
> 
> Enjoy!

"Mama! Mama, come quick!" James poked his mother's arm with as much urgency as a nine-year-old could muster. "Something happened, Mama!"

Rachel looked up to see the older of her two sons covered in—

"Is that  _ ink??" _ she asked, bewildered. Rather than answer, James pulled her by the arm into the bedroom he and Alexander shared. It was, to say the least, an absolute disaster. Ink was splattered all over the desk the two boys shared in the far corner of the room, up the walls, and on the floor; one particular spot on the floor seemed to have taken the most damage: right behind the desk's chair, which was now occupied by a frazzled Alexander.

"Alexander," Rachel began, trying her best not to positively explode. "What happened?"

Slowly, Alexander turned his head. His usual fiery red hair was black as a raven and his violet eyes were swimming with tears. "I… I d-dunno, Mama," he whispered shakily, tears mingling with the ink on his cheeks. "I was t-trying to write you a p-poem," he continued, "a-and Jemmie m-m-made fun of my ha—handwriting…" he was getting louder now, dangerously close to dissolving into another wave of tears. "…and th-then, I d-d-don't know how, b-but the inkwell sh-shot ink at J-J-Jemmie a-and it— it g-g-got everywhere!!" At this he erupted into sobs and collapsed onto the inky floor. 

Rachel’s fury seemed to melt away. She knew all too well what was going on. She knew it would happen eventually, no matter how hard she tried keeping it secret.

It was time for Alexander to know.

“James, sweetie,” she said softly, not taking her eyes off of Alexander. “Why don’t you take the bucket down to fetch some water to clean up this mess?” He seemed to catch on that she wanted a private word with Alex— her boys were very quick-witted, after all— and with a small “yes, Mama” he was off, leaving the two of them alone in the room. “Mama?” Alexander asked timidly. “Mama, do you believe me? Are you mad at me?”

Rachel closed the distance between them in two strides and pulled him into a reassuring embrace. “Of course I believe you, Alex. How could I be mad at you? Accidents happen, sweetie. I understand.” His amethyst eyes were laced with curiosity as they met hers. “You—you do?” he asked, clearly taken aback. “I…—are you sure I’m not going crazy?” He sounded more and more concerned now, gesticulating anxiously despite Rachel’s efforts. “Ink doesn’t move on its own, Mama— nothing moves on its own! So how did I do that? I only thought it happened because I’m—”

“No, honey.” Rachel interjected firmly. “There are just some things that I need to explain to you.” She placed her hands tenderly on Alexander’s shoulders and kneeled, shrinking their height gap until her gaze was level with his. “Things that I should have told you much sooner.”

“A-Alright,” he responded warily. Rachel continued. “First, Alexander, I promise that you are not crazy and you are not seeing things. Understand?”

He nodded vigorously.

“Good. Now I want you to know that this is normal for people like you. For people like us.”

Alexander furrowed his brows at this. “What do you mean, ‘people like us,’ Mama? What’s normal for them?”

Rachel couldn’t help but smile. “I mean people with  _ magic _ like us, honeybun. It’s normal for it to burst out sometimes, especially at your age.”

“Magic?” Alexander certainly wasn’t prepared for that answer. “So that’s what I did? I did magic?”

She nodded.

His confusion dissipated and his lavender eyes flickered with excitement. “And you can do it too?”

Another nod.

Alexander’s thrill was gone even faster than it had come. “How come you never told me?”

Rachel’s smile faltered and faded away. She was really hoping he wouldn’t ask about that.

“Well, I didn’t think it was safe, honey,” she said softly, “when your father was still around.”

“Huh?”

“He doesn’t have any magic, sweetie. There was no way I could be sure that he would like it if I told him about magic. He might not have liked that I was a witch.”

Alexander didn’t seem satisfied with that answer. “But what about after he left?”

“I was worried,” she began slowly, “that you and James might not have gotten my magic.” She smiled at him. “But apparently I was only half right.”

“So… so Jemmie doesn’t have magic?”

“I don’t think so, junebug. He would’ve shown it by now.”

“Can I give him mine, Mama?”

“I’m sorry, hon, but you can’t. Magic can’t be shared.”

Alexander pouted. “Why not?”

“The world just… doesn’t work that way.” Rachel wiped the inky tears from his cheeks and gave him a tight hug. “It just doesn’t.”

She let go of him and turned her head quickly before meeting his eyes again. “James will be back any minute now,” she began, “and I need you to promise me something.”

He seemed curious and his brows furrowed slightly with concern. “What is it, Mama?”

“I need you to keep this a secret from James. It’s very important that he doesn’t know about magic. Can you do that, Alexander?”

He hesitated for a moment, turning his gaze upward and biting his lip in thought. “Yes, Mama. I’ll try my best.”

“Good.” She planted a kiss on his forehead. “And if you do, I could give you some magic lessons.”

Alexander’s face positively shone. “Really? You could teach me?”

Just then, James walked into the room with a tin bucket full of water. “Teach him what, Mama?”

“Teach your clumsy brother how to clean up this mess is what!” She exclaimed, giving Alexander a sly wink as she turned to him. “Could you fetch me the mop, Alexander?”

The small boy heaved a convincing sigh. “Okay, Mama.” He walked, seemingly dejected, out of the room, but the excited bounce in his step was visible to her eyes alone.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Alex thinks about things. A friend joins him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’m sorry I took so long to update I just chose a really bad time to upload chapter 1 bc like right after that finals review started getting serious and I had 2 exams in particular that are !!!very important!!! (and on the same day too rip in peace)
> 
> Also: Just for the record all characters’ physical descriptions are, where applicable, based on the musical. Except our good hammie friend. red hair and purple eyes is #theshit and anyone who thinks otherwise can fight me
> 
> Also Also: Well technically one could argue that J. Hammie Sr. left when Alex was ten and when Alex was 7 his father was technically still around but technically I make the rules here so

The island was quiet— eerily so. A vast velvety black sky stretched across the horizon, alive with infinite winking stars. A full moon hung proud in the heavens, graciously shedding its ghostly light upon the world. It shone down on the vast sea, glittering like crystals. Its soft light blanketed the prominent steeple of the church, the synagogue, the headstones of the cemetery; the trading ships, moaning hauntingly as they bobbed with the tide; the main square, the marketplace, where the shops stood empty and devoid of any activity. A light tropical breeze blew, whispering sweet nothings to the island’s inhabitants as they all slept peacefully.

All except the boy with fiery red hair and violet eyes sparked with wonder, perched on the roof as the world turned.

How long had he been sitting up here? He wasn’t entirely sure. Time seemed to be warped by the waves crashing like a heartbeat, was masked by the salty tang of the ocean air, swept away by the soft breeze as if it were nothing but dust.

It was times like these in which Alexander could finally let his imagination run freely, let his mind wander like ivy on a wall, from this to that to some other topic that he’ll soon forget.

Eventually, he found himself thinking about the incident a few weeks ago. How his mother had told him about the truth. He was still in slight shock; a part of him was still doubtful about the whole affair.

But why would his mother tell him something like that if it wasn’t true?

Maybe she will explain more in those lessons she promised. Oh, how he hoped that she would keep that promise. Despite his skepticism, a part of him was excited to learn how to harness this magic.

Much to even his own surprise, he had managed to not utter a word about this to James. He had kept his promise and was hoping any day now that his mother would do the same.

But suddenly, he was jerked away from his thoughts and back to reality. His eyes darted to a single nearby palm tree, shaking violently from what he knew wasn’t any wind.

A smile found its way to his lips as he stuck his hand out over the edge of the flat roof, giving the signal. After a few moments of clambering, a pair of tiny hands found their way to the ledge and a tiny body pushed its way up and over to join Alexander on the roof.

“Hey, Alex.”

Martha’s hair was the color of coffee beans, a brown so dark it can easily be mistaken for black. It was curly, too, thick and frizzy and wild as it shone in the moonlight. Her eyes were a shocking electric blue, but even in the low light Alex could see they had lost their usual spark. 

“Hey, Martha.” Alexander knit his eyebrows together, concerned. “Did he do it again?”

“No,” she huffed, not meeting his eyes, “he just yelled this time. You know I hate it when he yells.”

“What was he mad about?”

“That’s the thing, Alex. I didn’t do anything. Not really, at least.”

“What do you mean, ‘not really?’”

“I dunno! I was just trying to do my homework the fast way when he barged into the bedroom and—”

“‘The fast way?’”

She huffed again, rolling her eyes. “You know, doing a bunch of different things at once. Having pens do some work for you. Daddy says that’s not normal, though. That’s when he started to yell.”

Alexander’s eyebrows furrowed even further, this time with confusion.

“You can make pens move on their own?”

_ “Yes,  _ Alex, I  _ just _ said—”

His violet eyes widened, sparkling in the moonlight.

_ “You can do it, too.” _

“What?”

“Magic. You can do magic, Martha—just like me.”

“I can do magic?  _ You _ can do magic?”

“Yeah!”

She folded her arms and gave him a doubtful sort of scowl. “Prove it.”

Alex looked around trying to think of something when his eyes found their way to a group of palm fronds fluttering gracefully towards the ground. The fronds suddenly soared up and began to circle around martha’s ankles, snaking their way up until they rested on her head in a beautiful crown.

Blue eyes met violet and widened, amazed, as the inky black sky became tinged with purple.

“Wow” Martha breathed, at a loss for words.

For once, so was he.

“Yeah.”

There was a silence between them that seemed to tell more than words ever could. Martha smiled.

The smile was followed by bubbling giggles that poured out of her like seafoam; her laugh like a tinkling wind chime in the breeze. Alex soon found himself unable to contain laughter of his own, spilling out of him like thunder and rain.

By the time their laughter had died out, the sun was beginning to poke above the horizon, making its grand entrance as it set the sky aflame with blazing yellows and oranges, while the moon retreated to safety behind the sea.

They tore their eyes away from the brilliant sky and looked at each other.

“I should go,” Martha whispered.

“You should’ve gone already,” he amended. “You’d better hurry.”

“Yeah— I’ll see you tomorrow, Alex.”

“See you then.” he responded.

Martha climbed back down, crown and all, and was gone.

Alex wished he had more time to think about all of this as he descended the stairs and climbed back into bed, waiting to be woken up.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this was gonna be only part 1 of a reasonably lengthy chapter but i needed to give yall s om e t h i n g so here it is
> 
> also: thank you for the comments!! yall are so nice honestly i cant take it (but dont hesitate to leave some more)
> 
> also also: s/o to john steinbeck for writing the pearl as it was most of my inspiration for that opening paragraph which was pretty sweet if i do say so myself
> 
> anyways!! back to my pit of despair for the rest of the summer :)
> 
> find me on tumblr @past-patiently-waitin
> 
> edit: idk why but the end notes for the first chapter are right below this?? just ignore thm kthxbai

**Author's Note:**

> ok i know rachel was french and taught alexander french and all but i always found it kind of annoying when i had to scroll down to the end notes whenever there was a bunch of french-that-doesnt-sound-like-italian-or-spanish but shhhh nobody needs to know that
> 
> 986 words feels like a long enough chapter to me, but apparently most multi-chapter works are at least 1.5k words per chapter so??? i might make the next one longer  
> but i might not who knows ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯
> 
> im uploading this in the hopes that i get some encouragement for chapter 2 so if you could leave some kudos or better yet hmu with some comments that'd be g8 m8
> 
> also feel free to go yell @ me on tumblr about it: @beware-the-lafayeti


End file.
